In 1911 negotiations were begun to amalgamate the Auckland Provincial Association, the Northern Bowling Association, and the original New Zealand Bowling Association into one national organisation. After prolonged negotiations, the “Dominion of New Zealand Bowling Association” was successfully launched in Dunedin on 10 September 1913, when the first council met and the constitution was adopted. The association comprised 17 centres, eight in the North Island and nine in the South, embracing 198 clubs and 10,912 members.

In 1886 the first New Zealand Bowling Association was formed, comprising the 12 clubs then in existence, Dunedin, Roslyn (Dunedin), Invercargill, Caledonian (Dunedin), Balclutha, Auckland, Lawrence, Christchurch, Oamaru, Milton, Canterbury, and New Plymouth. The Governor of New Zealand, Sir William Jervois, consented to become the patron of the association and, in spite of the vast distances between the affiliated clubs, they competed for six medals. A constitution was drawn up by the committee and approved by the clubs and, for the first time, “rules of the game” were considered and agreed upon. In order to “further the influence of the association”, a national tournament was held in Dunedin in the same year, the entrance fees being devoted to the purchase of a prize for the winning club. This tournament was confined to teams of four or “rinks”, as they were then called, and entries were received from nine of the 12 clubs, a total of 28 fours. The Dunedin, Caledonian, and Roslyn greens were used, the whole tournament being completed in one day.

At an Easter tournament held in Wellington in 1890 under the auspices of the Wellington club, the question of the formation of a bowling association for the North Island bowlers was discussed. It was decided to form the Northern Bowling Association of New Zealand, with its headquarters in Wellington. The first meeting of the council of this association was held on 13 August 1891. Delegates from Wellington, Napier, Auckland, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Nelson, Wairau (now Blenheim), and Palmerston North clubs were present. The first annual report of the northern association for 1891 says: “the whole of the clubs in the North Island, as well as those in Nelson and Marlborough, have joined – nine in all – having a total membership of between five and six hundred”. The report of the northern association for the year ended 30 September 1906, 15 years later, states (inter alia), “during the year our numbers have been further augmented by the affiliation of the Waipawa, Maitai (Nelson), and Marton clubs, bringing the roll up to 43 clubs, with a membership of over 2,000 – the strongest association of its kind in the Australasian colonies”. By 1906 there were 40 clubs affiliated to the association. In the same year came the formation of the North Canterbury Centre, with the idea of more conveniently arranging matters directly affecting the North Canterbury district. The North Canterbury Centre then appeared to comprise the Christchurch, Canterbury, St. Albans, United, Ashburton, Dunsandel, Kaiapoi, Rangiora, Temuka, Timaru, and Waimate clubs.

A further split took place with the formation in 1895 of the Auckland Provincial Bowling Association, at a meeting of delegates from the then existing clubs, Auckland, Remuera, Newmarket (now known as Carlton), and Devonport. In 1906 there were 16 clubs affiliated to the Auckland provincial association, with a membership exceeding 1,000 players.

The original New Zealand Bowling Association had been steadily growing and its report of 31 July 1909 records that the association then consisted of six centres comprising 59 clubs, with a total membership of 3,119. The North Canterbury Centre had now become the Christchurch Centre, comprising 16 clubs and 895 players. The South Canterbury Centre had been formed and included five clubs, with a membership of 283. The North Otago had four clubs with 203 playing members; South Otago, seven clubs with 257 members; and Dunedin Centre, 17 clubs with 1,056 members; while Southland was still in its infancy with 10 clubs and 425 members. The report also records that in the first tournament held in 1887 (referred to above) the Canterbury club won with Southland second and Dunedin third. After three successive tournaments in Dunedin the venue alternated between Christchurch and Dunedin annually.

Bowls in New Zealand were first introduced in Auckland about 1860. The Auckland Bowling Club, established in 1861, was the first club, its green being ready for play and opened in 1862. A Wellington merchant, George Turnbull, imported a set of bowls in 1862. Moving to Dunedin in course of business shortly afterwards, he introduced the game to many of his friends, and for several years games were played wherever a suitable playing surface could be found. In December 1871 the Dunedin Bowling and Quoiting club was formed. The Dunedin club's green was opened on 21 December 1872, thus becoming the second official club in New Zealand. In November 1875 the Christchurch Bowling Club was formed. In March 1876 a piece of land about half an acre in area in Worcester Street was purchased and “a competent gardener” placed in charge to prepare the grounds. In the meantime the members had the use of a private green in Latimer Square and played there until the club's green was ready. In 1879 annual matches against the Dunedin Bowling Club were begun, each club visiting the other in alternate years. In 1889 the club became a limited liability company in order to deal with its somewhat difficult financial problems, but in 1896 it reverted to an incorporated society. Milton club, Otago, the oldest country club in New Zealand, was next to appear. It was formed in 1878. From then on new bowling clubs were regularly formed, especially in the eighties. According to the Otago Daily Times, the first inter-club bowling match in New Zealand took place on 22 January 1876 between the Dunedin Bowling Club and the Fernhill Club. There were 12 players a side.

It is laid down in the Federation's constitution that all members shall be amateurs and, indeed, there is no provision made for professional competition. The following are the lists of national title winners:

The New Zealand Indoor Bowls Federation, the controlling body of the sport in New Zealand, was formed in August 1949. It consists of an Executive Committee which meets monthly between April and September of each year. The Executive, which controls the national championships, is elected by and responsible to the annual general meeting of the Federation, which is attended by delegates from each of the 33 district associations. It also coordinates the activities of all indoor bowling clubs in so far as they affect interclub, interdistrict, or national championships or tournaments. The Federation maintains liaison with similar bodies overseas, and arranges international competitions.

Since its introduction, the game of indoor bowls has grown in popularity to the extent where it rivals some of the longer established sports. In 1938 there were about 150 indoor bowling clubs catering for a handful of enthusiasts. Eleven years later, when the Federation was formed, there were only 1,854 registered members. By 1962 there were nearly 2,000 clubs, having a total membership of over 66,000. This recent upsurge of public interest is due largely to the formation of the New Zealand Indoor Bowls Federation (Inc.), and the consequent adoption of uniform playing rules.

The game of indoor bowls began in New Zealand in the Auckland area as a social activity of many of the lodges in that city. As early as 1908 J. Jenkin of Auckland had seen indoor bowls played in London and was impressed by its possibilities. He introduced the game to the Hope of Auckland Rechabite Tent where, on 15 March 1912, the first official match, under modern conditions, was played. The game became popular among the Rechabites who in February 1915 formed the Independent Order of Rechabites Indoor Bowling Association. Its popularity spread to the Foresters (1917), the Druids (1918), the Oddfellows (1924), and the Orange Lodges (1927), and each of these formed indoor bowling associations to control the game within their respective orders. In 1927 the game was taken up by the various returned servicemen's clubs and, in the early 1930s, by many business houses and social clubs. About this time the first district associations were formed.

(1922– ).

World-champion shearer.

A new biography of Bowen, Walter Godfrey appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

(1821–99).

Governor of New Zealand.

A new biography of Bowen, George Ferguson appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Bowen was born in Ireland on 2 November 1821, the eldest son of the Rev. Edward Bowen. He was educated at Charterhouse, obtaining a scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. with first class in classical honours and was twice president of the Union. He became a member of Lincoln's Inn but did not practise, becoming president of the University of Corfu in 1847. He held this post for four years, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the islands and of Greece and the Greek provinces of Turkey. He soon made a reputation with his books on his studies and travels. In 1848 he was in Vienna at the time of its capture by the Imperial troops. Next year he journeyed across Hungary just before the close of the civil war. At some danger to himself, he conveyed a letter from Kossuth and the other refugees held at Vidin to the British Ambassador at Constantinople, and thereby prevented their being handed over by the Turks. Bowen was appointed chief secretary of the Ionian Islands in 1854. When Gladstone was sent out in 1858 to consider the union of the islands with Greece, he recommended that Corfu be retained but that the southern islands be surrendered. All were given up in 1864.

On the separation of Queensland from New South Wales, Bowen was appointed first Governor, landing at Moreton Bay on 10 December 1859. He set up the necessary administration and toured the interior to gain further knowledge of the colony. He encouraged exploration, local defence, and the importation of kanaka labour for work in the sugar plantations. He earned temporary unpopularity by refusing to allow the issue of unconvertible paper currency during a financial crisis.

At the end of 1867 Bowen was appointed Governor of New Zealand in succession to Sir George Grey, assuming office at Wellington on 5 February 1868. New Zealand was passing through a very difficult period. As there was a lull in the Maori War, almost all the British troops had been withdrawn, leaving the colonists, to their dismay, to carry on the war with their own resources. Towards the end of the year there was a great change for the worse. Te Kooti and his fellow prisoners escaped from the Chathams and took their revenge by massacring isolated settlers and friendly Maoris in Poverty Bay and the Bay of Plenty districts. Titokowaru, the Hauhau cannibal, was still a source of anxiety, and the settlers on the edge of the Maori heart of the North Island were in a state of alarm. The colonial forces had improved considerably, but were inadequate for a full-scale war.

Bowen, in his first dispatch, informed the Colonial Office that the colonists' ill feeling towards the British Government was due more to the tone of the dispatches rather than to their actual substance. He used the Fenian riots in Hokitika to retain the remaining regiment. In November 1868, when speaking at Wanganui where Titokowaru was active, he told the settlers that they must rely on their own stout hearts and strong arms.

While native affairs since 1862 had – in theory – been a ministerial responsibility, Bowen did everything possible to bring a solution to the war. In a dispatch of 7 December 1868 he advocated that the troops be left to hold the chief towns and keep up the imperial prestige in the eyes of the Maori. Despite the New Zealand offer to pay the cost of maintaining the troops, the Colonial Office refused, stating that it did not believe that 220,000 whites, aided by the loyal natives, were incapable of defending themselves against a few thousand natives, only a few hundred of whom were in arms. For various reasons the troops were held until February 1870.

Fighting took place throughout the North Island and the only thing that saved many of the isolated settlements was the revulsion which the Hauhau barbarities raised in the King tribes and in the wronged Wiremu Kingi and his friends. There was, however, a realisation that further fighting was not in the best interests of either the colonists or the Maoris. The New Zealand Government adopted a more conciliatory policy. Land reserves were promised for those who had rebelled, while the prisoners were treated fairly, and hanging was only carried out when murder or some other atrocity had been proved in a Court of law. It was also agreed that the Kingites would be left undisturbed in their own territory so long as they remained peaceful. The government began building strategic roads and forts, using Maori labour wherever this was possible without provoking ill feeling. By the summer of 1869–70 all fear of a general rising was over and the uneasy peace of the seventies had begun.

Bowen made visits to many of the tribes, receiving expressions of goodwill and doing his utmost to reconcile the two races. He presented swords of honour sent by the Queen to the friendly chiefs who had assisted in the war, and in 1870 appointed to the Legislative Council two Maori representatives. Before leaving New Zealand he granted a general amnesty for political offences.

In his dispatches Bowen defended New Zealand from the many charges made against that country in Great Britain, especially in the long-debated question of settler-Maori relations. On the other hand he managed to prevent the widespread feeling that the colony was being abandoned from developing into a major issue. This could easily have happened as there was open talk – mainly irresponsible – that the time was opportune for an approach to the United States. His representations led to the British Government's guaranteeing a loan of £1,000,000 to soften the blow of the troops' withdrawal, and as a result a better feeling prevailed. Over all, the colony received very fair treatment and certainly got the best or the bargain.

Bowen was Governor during the two visits of the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria's second son and New Zealand's first royal visitor, in 1869 and 1870. On the second occasion Rotorua was visited, and the Duke took the submission of Te Waru and 46 of his followers at Maketu. Bowen issued the Order in Council instituting the New Zealand Cross for conspicuous service to those serving in the colonial forces. This was entirely irregular as the personal sanction of the Queen was necessary. In the circumstances, however, she gave her approval. He also conducted the correspondence relating to the use of the term “honourable” by retired members of the Executive Council in the colony. He was interested in education and endowed the Bowen prize for an essay on British or British colonial history for a university student. His last weeks as Governor were marked by a series of ministerial crises, but eventually Fox assumed the premiership until the return of Vogel, and Bowen left on 19 March 1873 to become Governor of Victoria.

In Victoria, Bowen's greatest problem was the controversy in 1877 between the two Houses over a clause about payment to members included in a finance Bill. The Council (appointed for life) rejected the Bill which it could not amend. Bowen believed the question to be purely local and accepted the advice of his Ministers for the wholesale dismissal of public servants to reduce expenditure. He was much criticised for his action, but was appointed in turn Governor of Mauritius (1879–82) and of Hong Kong (1882–85). He retired in 1887 but late in the same year was appointed chief of a Royal Commission to determine the electorates under the new Malta constitution. He died at Brighton on 21 February 1899.

Bowen was tactful and interested in the people he governed, as is shown in the very informative dispatches he wrote. He could be firm and, though criticised, did not lack able support. He proved himself a sound Governor and led New Zealand successfully through some of the darkest years of its early history.

Bowen married twice, his first wife, who died in 1893, being Diamantina Roma, the daughter of the President of the Ionian Senate. There was one son and four daughters by this marriage. Honours he received included C.M.G., 1855, K.C.M.G., 1856, and G.C.M.G., 1860.

by James Oakley Wilson, D.S.C., M.COM., A.L.A., Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library, Wellington.

• Thirty Years of Colonial Government – A Selection from the Despatches and Letters of Sir George Ferguson Bowen, G.C.M.G.
• (ed.) Lane-Poole, S. (2 vols., 1889);
• History of New Zealand, Rusden, G. W. (3 vols., 1895)
• The Times (London) 22 Feb 1899 (Obit).

(1830–1917).

Civil servant, Magistrate, Speaker of the Legislative Council, educationist.

A new biography of Bowen, Charles Christopher appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

C. C. Bowen was the elder son of Charles Bowen, and was born at Milford, County Mayo. He was educated first in France where he learnt to speak the language fluently. He went to Rugby and then to Cambridge to study law; but his father's decision to settle in Canterbury prevented his taking a degree. Together with his parents, his sisters Anne and Letitia, and his brother Croasdaile, Bowen arrived at Lyttelton in the Charlotte Jane in December 1850.

In his first year in Canterbury, Thomas Hanmer, Stuart Wortley, Charles Maunsell, and Bowen – four young bachelors – lived together in Lyttelton in what Charlotte Godley called “Singleton House”, and in November 1851 they gave a ball of “unrivalled splendour”. Bowen was for two years private secretary to Godley riding from end to end of the South Island and visiting Domett at Nelson. In 1852 he was appointed Secretary of Police, and during his period of office, Mackenzie, the sheep drover, was arrested and sentenced. Bowen also held the position of chief clerk in the Provincial Treasury. He and his brother Croasdaile were both good cricketers and in an early match, played in 1853, they made equal top score, each scoring 22 runs. In 1855 he became Provincial Treasurer, in place of Simeon, who returned to England; and Bowen's father succeeded Simeon as Speaker of the Provincial Council, a position he filled with great credit to himself.

Charles Bowen and Crosbie Ward bought the Lyttelton Times from Ingram Shrimpton in 1856 for £5,000, and both of them took an active part not only in the management but also as contributors.

Bowen was a lay member of the first Diocesan Synod held in Canterbury in 1859, and was a church property trustee. He was an original committeeman of the Mechanics Institute, an early member of the Christchurch Club (1856), and of the Canterbury Jockey Club (1859). In 1859 he sold his interest in the Lyttelton Times to a syndicate of which William Reeves was the principal, and resigned his various other posts in preparation for a trip to England. He sailed in the Vallisneria on the last day of 1859, being the only passenger, and crossed the Andes in company with Clements Markham, a noted traveller and geographer. Bowen's description of their journey gained him his F.R.G.S. During his stay in America he formed friendships in the literary world with such men as Longfellow, Lowell, and Holmes, and in later life was proud to recall that he had been in Lincoln's company when the President announced the outbreak of the American Civil War. He met and married in England, in 1861, Georgina Elizabeth, the sister of his friend Clements Markham. He published a book of poems in this year. In 1862 he returned to Canterbury with his wife in the Matoaka and resumed his post as Receiver of Land Revenue. In 1864 he was appointed Resident Magistrate for Christchurch, a post which he, with his refined tastes and gentle character, must have found distasteful. A procession of hopeless drunkards and hardened prostitutes passed before him, begging for “one more chance” – a request which he too often granted, only to be greeted by the same offender the following morning.

At a dinner given in June 1862 to commemorate the opening between Lyttelton and Christchurch of the first electric telegraph in New Zealand, Bowen was credited with being the originator of the idea. He secured the necessary vote of £1,500 from the Provincial Council in 1858. When W. S. Moorhouse went to Auckland in December 1862 to attend the sitting of the General Assembly, Bowen was appointed Deputy Superintendent during his absence. He was very interested in acclimatisation, joined the society, and was its chairman in 1868. When the splendid statue of Godley was unveiled in Cathedral Square in August 1867 he was chosen to deliver the address – a high honour, though one FitzGerald undoubtedly would have received had he been available.

The enthusiastic furtherance of the cause of education ran like a thread through his life and was the most fruitful of all his activities. He was president of Canterbury College Union in 1872 and was an original governor of Canterbury College. After the synod of 1872 he read a paper on the secularisation of schools in which he pointed out that secular, as opposed to denominational, schools must come. A leader in the Lyttelton Times strongly supported him. This action showed that he had the courage of his opinions and was a clear-sighted man—it must have been a difficult step to take for one who was a strong supporter of the Church of England.

To mark the twenty-first anniversary of the founding of Canterbury it was proposed to form an astronomical society, with the idea of getting an observatory built sooner or later. The project was received with enthusiasm by the learned men of Canterbury – of whom there were a remarkable number – and Bowen spoke strongly in favour of the idea. He sat on the Bench for the last time on 13 December 1874 and the legal profession of Christchurch gathered before him when T. S. Duncan, president of the Canterbury Law Society, expressed their sorrow at his departure. He had accepted an appointment under the New Zealand Government as member of the Executive Council, Minister of Justice, and Commissioner of Stamps. It therefore became necessary for him to be elected to the House, and he chose Kaiapoi as his seat. In the election his opponent was Joseph Beswick, a man of no great standing but with a strong local following. Bowen, however, had little difficulty in defeating him. This meant he had to leave Canterbury for some time, and a subscription therefore was raised to mark the people's gratitude for his services to the province. He was presented with silver to the value of nearly £400, and the presentation was made by the Superintendent, William Rolleston in the Oddfellows Hall in February 1875. In December of that year he had to fight another election and Beswick ran him close owing to the feeling in Kaiapoi over the new railway which would ruin its business as a port. He was returned for Kaiapoi in 1877.

During 1873 and 1874 Bowen was chairman of the Board of Education, a position which enabled him to do the work near his heart of starting new schools. In 1877 he reached the peak of his career when he brought forward his Education Bill which established the system of free, compulsory, and secular education. As was his way, he was conciliatory in his methods of getting the Bill through the House. As Minister of Justice, Bowen drew on his experiences as Magistrate to introduce many prison reforms, in particular, the system of good conduct marks which enabled prisoners to reduce their terms of sentence.

When the Whitaker-Atkinson Government was defeated, Bowen retired. He continued to represent Kaiapoi till 1881, when he paid a long visit to England. On his return he confined himself to local affairs and business; but in 1891 he was appointed one of the last of the life members of the Legislative Council, and he was Speaker of the Council from 1905–15. He was a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand from 1881 to 1882 and again from 1888 to 1915. He was chairman of the North Canterbury Board of Education, April 1886. When he returned from England in 1897 he was appointed Canterbury manager of the New Zealand Trust and Loan Agency. For many years Bowen lived at Middleton on the Riccarton Road and planted many of the trees there, thus indulging one of his hobbies. He retained his fondness for the classics and continued to read French. In 1914 he received the honour of K.C.M.G. He died at Middleton on 12 December 1917, aged 87. His widow survived him by four years.

A parliamentary correspondent, describing Bowen in his old age, wrote: “he was an Irishman of the placidly benevolent type, with short and comfortable figure, clean-shaved kindly face, and a voice even, gentle, soft, and low. He speaks clearly but quietly, with a slow, sedate inflection, and stands calmly to his task with his hands buried deeply in the side pockets of his capacious jacket.”

After reading the above description, one finds a slight difficulty in reconciling the picture with the impression given by his letters to Selfe in the Hocken Library, Dunedin. Here he gave full rein to the prejudices of the day, had nothing good to say about the hated Australian, and was scathing about the even more-hated Scot. He agreed with other letterwriters that Canterbury was going to the dogs and was no longer a place for gentlemen to live in. When anyone not belonging to the select upper circle got a good well-paid job, he showed as much rage and jealousy as anyone else. Too much notice should not be taken of these sallies; he was only expressing the Victorian prejudices of his time and his class. A hundred years ago the eccentricities of Englishmen were allowed full play, and opinions were expressed with a vigour that would now be restrained. Bowen was one of the finest and most valuable of the early settlers, cultivated, active, always working for the good of the province and the country. Wynn-Williams once said in a speech that the two most highly esteemed names in Canterbury were C. C. Bowen and George Gould.

by George Ranald Macdonald, Retired Farmer, Kaiapoi R.D.

• Selfe Letters, (MSS), Hocken Library
• Men of Mark in New Zealand, Cox, A. (1886).